Electronic backpack

ABSTRACT

An illustrated view of an exemplary backpack for providing alerts and notification of specific events and information. The backpack is useful for providing an alert or notification to a user of the backpack of important items to remember to take at the end of a day. The backpack is also useful for reminders to eat, hydrate and directions for hikers and/or backpackers. Further the backpack is useful setting reminders for various events and thus removing the need for an additional reminder device. The backpack has an electronic system that can alert the user of the various events and activities further, the electronic system is coupled to an external light to visibly alert the user. The electronic system may further alert the user by audio voice or sounds.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to backpacks. More particularly, it relates toelectronic notification systems for backpacks.

BACKGROUND

A backpack, also called knapsack, rucksack, rucksack, pack, sack pack,or back sack, is, in its simplest frameless form, a cloth sack carriedon one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders,but it can have an external frame, internal frame, and there arebodypacks.

Backpacks are commonly used by hikers and students, and are oftenpreferred to handbags for carrying heavy loads or carrying any sort ofequipment, because of the limited capacity to carry heavy weights forlong periods of time in the hands.

Large backpacks, used to carry loads over 10 kilograms (22 lb.), as wellas smaller sports backpacks (e.g. running, cycling, hiking andhydration), usually offload the largest part (up to about 90%) of theirweight onto padded hip belts, leaving the shoulder straps mainly forstabilizing the load. This improves the potential to carry heavy loads,as the hips are stronger than the shoulders, and also increases agilityand balance, since the load rides nearer the wearer's own center ofmass.

Backpacks are heavily identified with students, and are a primary meansof transporting educational materials to and from school. In thiscontext they are sometimes known as bookbags or schoolbags. The purchaseof a suitably fashionable, attractive, and useful backpack is a crucialback-to-school ritual for many students.

Typical school backpacks generally lack the rigid frame of anoutdoor-style backpack and include only a few pockets in the front inaddition to the main storage compartment. While traditionally verysimple in design, school backpacks are often made with padded shoulderstraps and backs as well as additional reinforcement to hold largenumbers of heavy textbooks, as well as safety features such asreflective panels to make the wearer of the pack more visible at night.

A backpack has become a valuable accessory for school children andadults everywhere. The backpack is currently designed to only carrypapers, books, computers, computer accessories, etc. If a person needsto have a reminder of what is in the backpack, items to remember totake, homework or work assignments coming due, water bottles, etc. aseparate device is required to keep track of those reminders.

In light of the foregoing, there is a need for a backpack to havecapabilities to remind a user of the backpack of specific events thatare approaching, items to remember to take, when to rehydrate, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is an illustrated view of an exemplary backpack.

FIG. 1B is an illustrated view of an exemplary display of the exemplarybackpack shown in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 1C is an illustrated view of display icons for the exemplarydisplay shown in FIG. 1B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The phrases “in one embodiment,” “in various embodiments,” “in someembodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. Such phrases do notnecessarily refer to the same embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictatesotherwise. Such terms do not generally signify a closed list.

“Above,” “adhesive,” “affixing,” “any,” “around,” “both,” “bottom,”“by,” “comprising,” “consistent,” “customized,” “enclosing,” “friction,”“in,” “labeled,” “lower,” “magnetic,” “marked,” “new,” “nominal,” “not,”“of,” “other,” “outside,” “outwardly,” “particular,” “permanently,”“preventing,” “raised,” “respectively,” “reversibly,” “round,” “square,”“substantial,” “supporting,” “surrounded,” “surrounding,” “threaded,”“to,” “top,” “using,” “wherein,” “with,” or other such descriptorsherein are used in their normal yes-or-no sense, not as terms of degree,unless context dictates otherwise.

Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments asillustrated in the drawings. While embodiments are described inconnection with the drawings and related descriptions, there is nointent to limit the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein. On thecontrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications andequivalents. In alternate embodiments, additional devices, orcombinations of illustrated devices, may be added to, or combined,without limiting the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Referring to FIG. 1, an illustrated view of an exemplary backpack 100for providing alerts and notification of specific events andinformation. The backpack 100 is useful for providing an alert ornotification to a user of the backpack of important items to remember totake at the end of a day. The backpack 100 is also useful for remindersto eat, hydrate and directions for hikers and/or backpackers. Furtherthe backpack 100 is useful setting reminders for various events and thusremoving the need for an additional reminder device.

The backpack 100 has an electronic system 200 and a light 300.

The backpack 100 has a body 101. The body 101 has a front 102, a middle103 and a back 104. The body 101 of the backpack 100 is preferably madeof a waterproof material, but may be non-waterproof. The body 101 of thebackpack 100 is preferably made of a fabric material, such as cloth,rayon, nylon, etc. but other materials are hereby contemplated,including, but not limited to, plastic, poly-vinyl chloride (PVC), etc.

The front 102 of the body 101 of the backpack 100 has a first pocket105, a second pocket 106 and a first compartment 107. The first pocket105 and the second pocket 106 are useful for storing smaller items suchas pens, pencils, paperclips, etc.

The first compartment 107 of the body 101 of the backpack 100 has aclosure 108 and an interior 109. The closure 108 of the firstcompartment 107 of the body 101 of the backpack 100 is preferably azipper, but other closures are hereby contemplated, including, but notlimited to, Velcro, snaps, etc.

The interior 109 of the first compartment 107 of the body 101 of thebackpack 100 is preferably has a lining 110. The lining 110 of theinterior 109 of the first compartment 107 of the body 101 of thebackpack 100 has a first side 111 and a second side (not shown).

The electronic system 200 is coupled to the interior 109 of the firstcompartment 107 of the body 101 of the backpack 100. The electronicsystem 200 has a display 201, a computing device 202 and a power supply203.

The power supply 203 is preferably a rechargeable battery but othertypes of power supplies are hereby contemplated, including, but notlimited to, disposable battery, solar, ac/dc, etc. The power supply 203is electrically coupled to the computing device 202 of the electronicsystem 200, the display 201 of the electronic system 200 and the light300.

The computing device 202 is coupled to the display 201 of the electronicsystem 200. The computing device 202 is useful to store information/datafor the user, contain software to activate and provide alerts to theuser and optionally to communicate with external devices. The externaldevices are preferably applications on computing devices, but otherdevices are hereby contemplated. The protocol to communicate between theelectronic system 200 and the external devices is preferably IEEE 802.11(WiFi), but other protocols are hereby contemplated, including, but notlimited to, IEEE 802.15 (Bluetooth), 3GPP, 3GPP2, Wireless 4G, Wireless5G, etc.

The display 201 of the electronic system 200 displays informationpertinent to the user communicated by the computing device 202. Thedisplay 201 is described in further detail in FIG. 1B.

The light 300 is coupled to the back 104 of the backpack 100substantially near the middle 103 of the backpack 100. The light 300 ispreferably a light emitting diode (LED) lamp, but other types of lampsare hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, liquid crystaldisplay, etc. The light 300 preferably is illuminated in a colordepending on an event determined at the computing device 202 of theelectronic system 200.

Moving now to FIG. 1B, an illustrated view of the display 201 of theelectronic system 200 shown in FIG. 1A is presented.

The display 201 has a first side 204 and a second side 205. The secondside 201 of the display 201 preferably has a YES section 206 and a NOsection 207. The YES section 206 and the NO section 207 are useful forrequesting acknowledgement of the completion of an alerted condition.

The display 201 is preferably a light emitting diode (LED) display, butother types of displays are hereby contemplated, including, but notlimited to, liquid crystal display, etc.

The first side 204 of the display 201 displays information/data andalert information determined by the computing device 202 of theelectronic system 200 (shown in FIG. 1A). The first side 204 of thedisplay 201 preferably has a current time 208, one or more currentalerts or information 209 and one or more icons 210.

The computing device 202 of FIG. 1A determines the alert or condition todisplay at the display 202. The display 202 indicates the determinedalert or information 208. The current alert or information 208 displayedis presently “COAT” 211 and an icon 213. The display of the “COAT” 211may trigger an alert sound or may trigger the light 300 to become lit orblinking. The icon 212 displayed to represent the COAT 211 alert is acoat 213.

The COAT 211 indicates that the user should remember to bring their coatwith them. The YES section 206 and NO section 207 may become lit and/orblinking such that the user records their adherence to the alert or lackof adherence to the alert. The YES section 206 and NO section 207 mayfurther request feedback from the user when the user has failed toindicate adherence or if the user had selected the NO section 207 of thedisplay 201.

The computing device 202 further communicates to the display 201 todisplay an event of “HOMEWORK” 214. The HOMEWORK 214 indicates that theuser has homework due in the near term. The YES section 206 and NOsection 207 may become lit and/or blinking such that the user recordstheir adherence to the alert or lack of adherence to the alert. The YESsection 206 and NO section 207 may further request feedback from theuser when the user has failed to indicate adherence or if the user hadselected the NO section 207 of the display 201. The icon 215 displayedto represent the HOMEWORK 214 alert is a book 215.

FIG. 1C illustrates a subset of the icons 20 representing the alerts orinformation that may be any of the following, though the icons 202 isnot limited to those discussed below or anywhere within thisapplication. The icons 202 are a water bottle 216, a book 215 and ajacket or coat 213. Other icons may be added and/or deleted andassociated at the computing device 202 with an event or information thatmay be communicated to be displayed and alerted at the display 201.

In the numbered clauses below, specific combinations of aspects andembodiments are articulated in a shorthand form such that (1) accordingto respective embodiments, for each instance in which a “component” orother such identifiers appear to be introduced (with “a” or “an,” e.g.)more than once in a given chain of clauses, such designations may eitheridentify the same entity or distinct entities; and (2) what might becalled “dependent” clauses below may or may not incorporate, inrespective embodiments, the features of “independent” clauses to whichthey refer or other features described above.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specificexemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies arerepresentative of more general processes and/or devices and/ortechnologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filedherewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.

The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied toother embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features ofother embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope ofthe present invention.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A backpack for display and alerting of events,the backpack comprising: a body, the body comprising: a front, the fronthaving a first compartment; an electronic system, the system comprising:a power source; a computing device, the computing device beingelectrically coupled to the power source; and a display, the displaybeing communicatively coupled to the computing device; and wherein thedisplay being electrically coupled to the power source; and a light,wherein the light being communicatively coupled to the computing device,wherein the light being electrically coupled to the power source,wherein the light being coupled to the back of the backpacksubstantially near the middle of the backpack, and wherein the lightemitting a light when a communication from the computing deviceindicates to light the light.
 2. The backpack of claim 1, wherein thebackpack being made of a fabric material.
 3. The backpack of claim 2,wherein the fabric material being nylon.
 4. The backpack of claim 2,wherein the material being waterproof.
 5. The backpack of claim 1,wherein first compartment further comprising an interior and a closure;the interior having a lining, the lining having a first side and asecond side.
 6. The backpack of claim 5, wherein the closure being azipper.
 7. The backpack of claim 5, wherein the display being coupled tothe first side of the lining.
 8. The backpack of claim 5, wherein thecomputing device being coupled to the second side of the lining.
 9. Thebackpack of claim 5, wherein the power source being coupled to thesecond side of the lining.
 10. The backpack of claim 1, wherein thepower source being a rechargeable battery.
 11. The backpack of claim 1,wherein display being a light emitting diode (LED) display.
 12. Thebackpack of claim 1, wherein the light being a light emitting diode(LED) lamp.
 13. The backpack of claim 1, wherein the display furthercomprising: a first section, wherein the first section displays a listof events and a list of icons representing each of the events; and asecond section, the second section having a YES section and a NOsection, wherein the YES section being for acknowledging of the alertedevent and the NO section being for disavowing the alerted event.
 14. Thebackpack of claim 13, wherein the selection of the NO section causingthe display to request acknowledgment of the completion of the event.15. The backpack of claim 13, wherein the lamp being light when the listof events is displayed.
 16. The backpack of claim 14, wherein the lampbeing lit a determined color depending on the event.
 17. The backpack ofclaim 14, wherein the light indicating the alert by blinking.